This article documents one case in a multi-case study of the role of music in refugee and newly arrived immigrant children’s and young people’s lives within a number of school, home, and community contexts in Sydney, Australia. It explores the ways in which a range of music activities operating within a specialist secondary school catering for newly arrived immigrants and refugees contribute to students’ processes of acculturation and integration within the host culture. A number of school-based musical experiences that provide opportunities for cultural maintenance, cross-cultural transmission, and verbal and non-verbal communication are described. The development of interpersonal connections, social cohesion, and student empowerment through varied learning, teaching, and performance opportunities is examined. A major outcome for students is a feeling of belonging, both to communities of practice within the school and to the wider Australian community, as well as to a global music community disseminated through various technological media.

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This article examines the role of music in the lives of refugees and newly arrived immigrant children in Sydney. Music had different functions for children depending on the length of time since resettlement, individual proclivities and interests, the presence and size of diasporic groups, and institutional endorsement. Music in school activities provides opportunities for social integration and language development. Creative involvement with music and dance both in and out of school settings gave some form of agency to disempowered refugee children. Different technologies, particularly the Internet, also facilitated children’s contact with the music of their home culture as well that of the host culture.